South Patagonia
26.01.2012
After almost 2 full days of travelling we ended up in El Calafate, a small town in Argentina. Its probably only visited due to the closeness of Torres del Paine and Perito Moreno Glacier.
We arrived in El Calafate around 2pm, checked into our guesthouse and explored the town. It s lovely here! Most shops are full of hand carved ‘mate’ teacups and souvenirs or Goretex gear but the town has a very warm friendly feel. Our hosts really made us feel at home, we had a mini kitchen and a small living area.
We booked our bus tickets to see the glacier for the next day and settled down in the sun with a beer and relaxed!
The next morning we had a lye in as our bus for the glacier didn’t leave until 1pm, we had a wonder around town, made our lunch for the day and sat in the sun.
The bus took slightly longer than expected, one and a half hours but when the glacier was in sight the whole bus was wowing. We had decided to get the afternoon bus to the glacier instead of the morning one as we had been told that in the afternoon sun there was a higher chance of larger parts of ice dropping off into the lake, we were not disappointed. The first time we heard a chunk of ice crack and drop was AMAZING; the sound was louder than any thunder you would have heard. And when we saw the effect of the ice crashing into the lake it was incredible. When we got off the bus, walked down the platforms to the balconies we were quite overwhelmed! It is something you have to see in your lifetime!
We spent the whole afternoon in awe of the massive spectacle in front of us, just waiting for the next chunk of ice to crash down into the lake. After enjoying some lunch and walking about to make sure we got to appreciate to glacier from all angles it was time to leave. The trip out was totally worth it and I would recommend to anyone to come and see it. Check out the pictures we got and you’ll see what I mean…
Next we’re back on the bus down to Puerto Natales, in Chile and to see Torres del Paine national park.
